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Jack Lembeck - A Work in Progress

Ratio decidendi est illuminare

Born in Saint Louis, Missouri; Jack Lembeck attended Washington University in Saint Louis for two years. He earned a BFA degree from the University of Kansas. He earned a MFA degree from Yale where he worked closely with well known artists Jack Tworkov, Al Held, Lester Johnson, William Bailey, philosopher Paul Weiss and of course Bernard Chaet. By 1970 he was a full-time faculty member at Yale University and became a Morse-Stiles Fellow under Master Bart Giamatti.

In 1969 he joined a small artists co-op to become an art pioneer in the now fashionable SoHo district of New York. As a president he converted this small co-op on West Broadway into one of the earliest alternative exhibition spaces for emerging artists. His first solo exhibition there, was in 1970. It consisted of paintings influenced by his investigations and research at Yale of children's art development.

Razor Gallery (as it was renamed) was the first to exhibit such artists as Robert Colescott, Judy Pfaff, Grace Knowlton, the United Graffiti Artists(u.g.a.) and other currently popular women and minority artists. Many ideas formulated at Razor were used by Irving Sandler and NYC official Trudy Grace to develop the now famous and important Artists Space in New York.

From Razor, Lembeck launched a successful exhibition career with timely and unique work. This work was originally inspired by children's art, primitive art, graffiti and the harsh physical environment of New York. It then evolved into a synthesized art of its own. That evolution now spans more than three decades and includes environmental work, installations, collaborations with other artists as well as individual exhibitions with professional galleries and institutions.

In 1986, looking for fresh inspiration, a change of environmental pace and natural surroundings, Lembeck and family moved to their property adjacent to J.N."Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida. It was near the first property they purchased in 1977. He steadily commuted and maintained studios in Florida and New York until 1990.

Florida accentuated his never ending quest for intriguing new sources and discovery. With an eye on process, Lembeck began actively pursuing his interest in marine archaeology and geology. He worked with Dr. John Gifford at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science as an archaeology research/science diver. This included extensive field work at Little Salt Spring. His interest originates from growing up in the shadow of the Mississippian mound builder sites. All of this experience plays a major role in his art. It became obvious in both the Brittle Star Park and Windscape projects.

A lingering urge to live closer to family was reinforced by the events of September 11, 2001. By Christmas of that year the Lembecks had relocated to a residence facing the Indian River Lagoon on South Tropical Trail a short distance from the Kennedy Space Center.

Soon after the move, Jack Lembeck became involved with the Brevard Museum of Art and Science and accepted the position of Director/CEO. As Museum Director he secured and accessioned historical collections such as "The Conill-Mendoza Chase Collection". And arranged notable exhibitions including "66 PIANOS Art-Case Drawings" By John Diebboll and a contemporary survey of OK Harris Gallery artists. As CEO, and working with John Diebboll as architect/planner, he introduced and encouraged the idea to merge the Museum with Florida Institute of Technology. It was then time to return to Nature - The purpose of living in Florida.

He joined the Florida Master Naturalist program. It correlated with the LANDMIND concept. He met nature photographers Vince Lamb and Charlie Corbell, and other like minded friends that had a genuine concern for their natural environment. The Master Naturalist program inspired new perspectives, approaches and techniques for enhancing LANDMIND principles.

In 2007, while looking for "Naturalist" projects Lembeck joined a group of environmentally concerned citizens to help organize and establish "Friends of Ulumay". The original leaders of the group were David Biega, Karin Biega and Barbara Venuto.

As Lembeck was researching the history of the Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary he was appointed Historical Commissioner of county district II and served on the Brevard County Historical Commission until 2011. The Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary was designated a Florida Heritage Landmark site in 2008. "Friends of Ulumay" became an inspirational component in the preservation and stewardship of the Florida natural landscape. "Friends of Ulumay"Inc. changed its name to "Preserve Brevard"Inc. in 2013. Lembeck has not been affiliated with any organizations in Brevard County since 2011.

Simultaneously with public work Jack Lembeck continued to produce and assemble a body of personal and private work inspired by a perspective of his physical surroundings. He is currently concentrating on new work that is intended to guide him to more personal discoveries.

Jack Lembeck is not represented by any dealer, gallery or agent. His work can be found in various galleries. All works on the open market have been sold at least once. (Some many times) No works are on consignment from the Artist.

The first gallery professional to recognize the potential of graffiti artists.
The "Razor Gallery"exhibit of United Graffiti Artists (u.g.a.) was the first time that Graffiti Art was exhibited and recognized as a valid art form.
Jack Lembeck visited their “studio” and personally transported the graffiti works on canvas to "Razor" in his own 1972 Ford pickup truck.

As champion of New York artists, "Artists Space" developed from his conferences with independent artists. Many were associated with "Razor".
"Artists Space" eliminated the need for "Razor" which became lost in the new popularity of SOHO.

Studio partner of Jack Lembeck in New Haven while he was enrolled as a Yale special student of Jack Tworkov and Lester Johnson.
He also exhibited as an active member at Razor Gallery. OK Harris - images

A story that illustrates the importance of art, preservation and sense of place.
This successful collaborative vision of gentrification has become known as the "SoHo Effect".
For a more personal view from many of those who have lived there - go to The SOHO Memory Project

Before "Bart" crashed the gates of professional baseball or was president of Yale he was a scholar and Master of Ezra Stiles College.
He arranged a fellowship for Jack Lembeck that included involvement with both Morse and Stiles colleges.

Judy Pfaff talks about the influence of printmaking in his painting. To quote Held; "One of the profound powers of the artist is that he can will or choose to become anything he wills or chooses." (Al Held - Prints)

Not at Yale but was the most influential visual art theorist for Lembeck during the Yale and New York period. His books were a reference for teaching. Dean Howard Weaver of Yale A&A encouraged communication.

The last SOHO loft where the Lembeck family lived and worked was the entire top (6th) floor of 457-459 Broome Street.
It was a raw corrugated box storage space with steel plate aisles when Lembeck signed a ten year lease
plus an option to renew with only a cost of living increase. They converted it into a comfortable artist living loft.
Five large windows in the rear had a clear view of the "World Trade Center-Twin Towers" that was a 24/7 kinetic light sculpture.
The Lembeck family lived in two other SOHO lofts before moving to Broome Street.
First they lived at 131 Prince Street, two floors above Jazz great Ornette Coleman.
They then converted a raw industrial loft into an artist studio and living loft on the top (6th) floor of 100 Grand Street.
They were first people ever to live in the building at 100 Grand Street.

The J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge is located on the subtropical barrier island of Sanibel in the Gulf of Mexico. (Official Refuge Facebook) It is world famous for its spectacular migratory bird populations. The refuge is part of the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States. The Lembeck home was at the edge of this mangrove forest.

After attending a few classes in the Rosenstiel Marine Affairs Department and qualifing as a University of Miami Science Diver including Nitrox Certification, Jack Lembeck was employed as research diver and worked at Little Salt Spring with the first Underwater Archaeology crew led by Dr. John Gifford...
(Working at Little Salt Spring in 1992 was the stimulus for Jack Lembeck to move to Miami. He has been a certified P.A.D.I. diver since 1972. )

Watch the innovative processes used at Little Salt Spring. (YouTube video)... View a "Waterlust" video of enthuisastic students and what they can do Now ...The point is how do we convert lust into genuine nurturing and enduring care that insures the eternal protection and preservation of essential assets of Earth. In the late 20th century when Crista Lembeck sailed as crew on the Hudson River Sloop "Clearwater", Pete Seeger offered the same message in another way. You might say he changed the course of the river with a banjo, a few songs and a little help from his friends. In 1968 no one recomended kayaks for the Hudson.
The "Hudson River School" was one of the earliest inspirations for Jack Lembeck. The New York Historical Society collections, including the "Audubon" continued to be a refuge from the obligatory contemporary art gallery visits throughout his time in New York.
We can see only one Blue–Green planet. And we know it can support our existence. Extinction is forever. Why not view the Earth as Art? Take a Hike...

"The best artists are those who have stood alone. And who can be separated." (Eva Hesse 1970)

"I've actually thought about cataloging my sources, but you're supposed to be coy about that: people prefer to think that ideas spring straight from the artist and not that artists are paying attention to, and learning from, the world. I learn from everywhere." (Kiki Smith
-"Portraits" by Michael Kimmelman 1998)

"Primarily, what we carry around with us is a memory of our childhood, back when each day held the magic of discovering the world." (Isamu Noguchi)

"I've come to feel that being involved with my family helps my work and doesn't take me away from it. It deepens the work and adds to its physicality." (Elizabeth Murray -"Portraits" by Michael Kimmelman)

"Having the courage and the nerve to be the artist...and not really worry about if it is right or wrong or smart or stupid... It’s just making your art... That's the Big Thing." (Stanley Whitney)

"If you're plotting art, and trying to make something to get something, you're not in a state of creative innocence. You're not making art. You're doing something else." (Sean Scully) (Lessons learned)

"These things are all part of a transient process that I cannot understand unless my touch is also transient..."(Andy Goldsworthy)

"When the illusion is lost, art is hard to find," (Kermit Davis son of Ronald Davis Defining Illusionism) -
Ronald Davis is the developer and interpreter of a segment of art that Barbara Rose first referred to as “Abstract Illusionism” in a 1967 Artforum article. Barbara Rose was a visiting lecturer at Yale during Lembeck's tenure and the wife of Frank Stella

"I'm interested in the point where imaginative seeing and outside seeing meet,...( James Turrell ) And remembering childhood ..."If you find yourself in the middle of nowhere your probably somewhere near my work".

"We communicate to future generations what we are, what we have been; hopefully influencing what we will become." ("Reflection on Art within Society" - Maya Lin) - - ( What is Missing? ) ( What is It? )